


Apology in a Bottle

by BlueRoboKitty



Series: Secret's Out [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Humor, Confessions, Drunk kiss, Explicit Language, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Underage Drinking, in which drunk keith is wildly ooc, no1 space dad has had enough of your bs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-18 23:18:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7335031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueRoboKitty/pseuds/BlueRoboKitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a rare display of maturity, Lance tries to apologize to Keith for humiliating him. But a bottle of alien wine has found the Red Paladin first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apology in a Bottle

**Author's Note:**

> Don't drink underage, kiddos. :D Also, I had to repost this like three times because the website is giving me issues.

“Dammit, Lance!”

Okay, so maybe, just maybe, Lance felt a little bad about what had happened at Chronas. Probably only because Shiro, leader of Team Voltron and his personal hero, was currently ripping him a new one. Lance stood at parade rest even, feet in line with his shoulders, arms folded at the small of his back, his dark blue eyes focused on the blank chrome wall straight ahead. They hadn’t done any kind of military formalities since leaving Earth, but Shiro’s _pissed_ so Lance reverted back to Garrison customs and courtesies on instinct. A reminder, and a harsh one, that they were still in uniform, just with new uniforms now, and Shiro was their commanding officer. Maybe that would soften the blow.

It didn’t.

“I’ve let you get away with a lot, Moreno, considering our abnormal circumstances, but you have really pushed it this time.” Last names. Fuck, they were on a last name basis now. Shiro didn’t yell, but his eyes blazed with black lightning and his voice was colder than Blue’s ice beam. “However, that shit you pulled on Chronas was completely unbecoming of a cadet. It was uncalled for. Apparently, sending Keith into berserk mode to distract the Galra had been a bad idea, and I take responsibility for that. I trusted you to accomplish that without _humiliating_ him.”

They hadn’t been able to form Voltron, after all. The moment Keith snapped out of berserk mode, he had shut his mind off from the rest of the team entirely. He had even disconnected with his Lion, putting Red out of commission. They had to retreat back to the Castle, leaving Chronas back in Galra hands. The battle had been lost, and it had been Lance’s fault. He had gone too far this time, and that was something he never admitted easily, especially when it came to Keith.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. He felt like he had to respond with _something._

 _“I’m_ not the one you should be apologizing to,” Shiro shot back, and somehow his voice was even _colder._ He shook his head and sighed with absolute disgust. Lance wanted to die. “It’s not like I can give you paperwork all the way out here, so I’ll have to figure out something else to make you prove to the rest of us that you won’t _ever_ pull a stunt like that again. In the meantime, go find Keith and apologize and figure out how to set things right with him. No more bickering, no more of your little rivalry. Understand?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Good. You’re dismissed.”

Lance saluted and about-faced out of there before Shiro could yell at him further. The captain was right, however. Lance had messed up, horribly so. He had known the idea of teasing Keith about that night had been a bad idea the moment his brain brought it up, but it had been too tempting to ignore in favor of common sense. Shiro was right, he should have just bickered with Keith like normal. It didn’t take much to make Keith mad anyway, and it wouldn’t have embarrassed him in front of the rest of the team. Even Coran and Allura had heard their chatter back at the Castle.

“It wasn’t like I was the _only_ one makin' fun of him, though,” Lance muttered, remembering how Pidge and Hunk had jumped on the bandwagon the moment Lance had set its wheels in motion. So why weren’t _they_ getting yelled at along with him?

“Well, you were the one who started it,” Hunk pointed out when the three of them met up in the kitchen later, and Lance had voiced this very complaint. “And Pidge and I were making fun of _both_ of you. When we tease Keith, we’re just messing around and having fun with him. When _you_ tease Keith, you’re kind of a dick.”

“And we’ve already apologized to Keith, anyway,” Pidge added. “When he finally came out of his Lion, that is. I think he had to go to the bathroom though, and, well, the Lions don’t have bathrooms installed.”

“Something we should probably rectify really soon by the way.”

“So where did Keith go after that?” Lance interjected before the pair of geeks could start drawing up blueprints for the Lions’ bathroom upgrades right then and there.

“Oh, we dunno, man,” Hunk replied with a shrug, “other than he _really, REALLY_ doesn’t wanna talk to you right now.”

Lance threw his hands up in exasperation. “The hell, you guys!? So it’s _all_ completely my fault then!”

“I know this is asking much of you, Lance, but don’t act like a child,” Pidge shot back, straightening their glasses. “You’re completely missing the point here.”

“Pidge is right. Like I said, it’s different when we tease Keith,” Hunk said. “Keith _likes you_ , dude. Like, he _really likes you_. It’s something we’ve all kinda figured out before he even talked to Pidge about you.”

“He only called me cute. Like he said.”

“Oh, come on, Lance, we went to school with this guy for over a year! When has Keith Song _ever_ called someone cute? It would have been all over the school newsletter if he had, and we all know it.” Hunk sighed. “Take it from someone whose been made fun of by the person he likes. On several occasions, even. It’s not cool, bro. What you did wasn’t cool at all.”

Lance kind of got it now. And he really did feel bad. Alongside the heart pounding realization that Keith, _that_ Keith, liked him. Like that. At least enough to be extremely hurt by Lance’s teasing.

“I definitely have to apologize!”

“Yeah, that’s what we’re telling you,” Pidge said, but Lance didn’t hear them.

He couldn’t find Keith anywhere in the Castle, however. Fueled by probably the most intense guilt he’d ever felt since he put a dead snake in his sister’s pillow when he was in the second grade and made her afraid to sleep in her own bed for a week, Lance spent that entire evening looking in every nook and cranny for the Red Paladin.

The first place he went to was Keith’s room, of course, since Pidge mentioned him having to use the bathroom. Not there, not even in the bathroom. Then he checked the training deck; that guy would be in there for hours and would probably completely forget to eat or sleep if Pidge hadn’t installed a program that would shut down the whole room after a while of continuous use. Nope. Not there, either. Then he tried the armory, the library, the main tower, back to the Red Lion hangar in case they missed each other. Red’s eyes were dark, however, probably in sleep mode. No pilot inside.

Lance was starting to get a little scared now. True, the Castle was massive, even more so when you were looking for someone. Lots and lots of places to hide. But he had no idea where to begin. He was contemplating asking Pidge if there was some kind of security footage system he could look through to see where Keith had gone when a set of stairs not far from the kitchen caught his scrutinizing eye.

This stairway was unlike the others in the castle. Little more than a shadowy nook in the wall at first glance, the stairs were plain and narrow. They didn’t spiral with flourish like the others, they just went straight down and were done with it. The railing was not gilded with sparkly alien metal or elegantly carved in some beautiful curve. It was a plain rod whose only purpose was to keep you from tumbling down to your death some twenty feet below.

“Keith, are you down here?”

There’s no way Keith would be down here in such a creepy place, right?

Swallowing hard, Lance gripped the railing. It felt solid enough, but he clutched to it tight as he descended into this strange, dark room. Just as he thought he was going straight into oblivion, he noticed a soft blue glow from the bottom of the stairs where the room stretched out into a hall. Curiosity getting the better of him, he started walking toward that glow without a thought.

The sound of glass breaking made him break into a run.

“Keith!?”

He knew. He just knew. The sick feeling in his stomach told him.

The hall suddenly expanded out into a huge room bright with blue light from the torches that lined both walls, emitting an azure light from some kind of alien fluorescence that was neither fire nor electricity. Between each torch stood shelves and shelves built into the wall reaching from floor to ceiling. Keith sat in the middle of the room with shards of glass gleaming from the floor by his feet.

“Keith? Buddy, are you okay!?”

This was not what Lance had expected at all. Truth be told, he had no idea what to expect, really, having not actually been in the position of having hurt someone like this before… that he was aware of.

Keith stared up at him, large indigo eyes regarding him from his messy black bangs.

Then, something else Lance wasn’t expecting at all and it was more shocking than anything else, Keith _beamed_ with a big smile. “Hiya, Lance!” he said cheerfully. He held up what looked to be a broken bottle. “I kinda dropped it. Oops.”

And then he _giggled._

It was in that moment that Lance realized each shelf was lined from one end to the other with small glass doors. Upon closer inspection, within these doors stood a bottle, perfectly preserved for over ten thousand years.

Well, now they could add the wine cellar to the Castle’s map.

“I have no idea what this shit is, man, but oh my fucking god, you have _got_ to try it!” Keith was grinning from ear to ear, rocking back and forth, as hyper as a small child on Christmas morning. His words slurred together, and there was a bright tinge of pink across his pale face.

“Holy shit… Keith, are you _drunk?”_ That was rhetorical question, of course.

Keith burst out laughing. So hard he almost fell over, and Lance had to catch his arm to keep him from falling onto the glass. There was another bottle next to him, whole, empty, written in Altean. “Ahmnondrunk…” The Red Paladin’s slur was much more obvious now. “I just got lost…”

“Yeah, you got lost all right. _In a wine cellar.”_

Keith stared at Lance as if he had grown five heads. He blinked once. Then again. His eyes were glazed. “Nah way! I don’t drink!” He laughed again. “I’m way too young! Nah, I was just curious and this stuff, this stuff tastes so fuckin’ good! It’s like cream soda! Way better than that space juice bullshit! Here, try some!”

“I, uh, I think you drank it all.”

He looked around and noticed the empty bottle and frowned. “Oh… oh, fuck. Oh fuck, I’m so sorry.”

His eyes went impossibly wide and his lower lip trembled.

“No, no, it’s fine! I’ll drink some later.”

Fuck, why couldn’t Keith be sober and screaming at him? Or ignoring him like the others said he would? Anything would be better than what was happening right now. Sure, he had dealt with underage drinking before; he went to high school once. But that had been an experimental time, a fun time. Not… whatever was happening here right now.

Keith hiccupped. It was kind of adorable. And very sad. “Promise?”

“Look, I’m grabbin’ a new bottle right now.” Lance opened the nearest little door and took one of the bottles out to present it to Keith. It wasn’t as cold as he thought it would be. “See? I’m puttin’ it in my hoodie. I’ll drink with you _if_ you let me take you back to your room. Okay?”

It felt like he was talking to one of his nephews, the one who had just started kindergarten and still wet the bed. Keith nodded up at him, and Lance was careful to keep him from stepping on the glass as he lifted him to his feet. “Lean on me, buddy. There ya go. Good job.”

“Don’t be patronizing, I’m not drunk,” Keith snapped, his arm over Lance’s shoulders as the other boy tried to keep him upright.

“You’re right.”

“Eh?”

Lance smirked at him. “You, my bro, are fuckin’ _wasted.”_

“Fuck you.”

“Hey, don’t get pissed at _me_ just because you chugged an entire bottle of alien wine in less than an hour. And who knows how much of that other bottle you drank before your drunk ass broke it.”

Keith hiccupped again and stumbled against Lance. “About half.”

“Keith, have you ever drank before in your life? At all?” Then again, drinking a bottle and a half of alien wine in such a short amount of time would be concerning no matter how experienced he could be. That wasn’t even considering the alcohol content of alien wine, either.

He got nothing but giggles for an answer. Oh God.

Keith’s room felt like a million miles away, and they had only just reached the stairs. “Okay, Keith, we’re about to go up some stairs, so I need you to focus, a’right? Can you do that?”

“Can’t we just” – hiccup – “stay here?”

“No. There’s nowhere for you to lay down. And sleep is what you need right now. C’mon. It’s not far.”

“Mmm… okay.”

They managed to get halfway up the stairs when Keith suddenly crashed into Lance’s side, and Lance had to grab onto the railing for dear life, his stomach plummeting all the way to his toes and he was pretty sure his life flashed before his eyes. “Keith, fuck! Fuck, fuck! C’mon, man!”

“Huh?”

“Dude, don’t pass out on me! At least wait until we get to the top of the stairs!”

A long sound dragged out of Keith’s throat like a, “aaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak… I’ll try not to.” He giggled again, and _nuzzled_ Lance’s shoulder.

“K-K-Keith…?”

“You smell so good, y’know that?”

“Um, thank you? Actually, I was kinda concerned, I didn’t bring my body spray with me so…”

Suddenly, Keith stood up straight and glared at Lance like he had snapped back to sobriety. “Dude, that body spray made you _stink._ I couldn’t get anywhere near you without my nose getting assaulted. You’re not supposed to fuckin’ _bathe_ in that shit. Now that it’s worn off, you smell like an actual human being. And it’s _nice.”_

Then Keith fell on him again, this time to nuzzle his shoulder some more.

“Okay, okay, c’mon, we’re almost there. Once we get back upstairs, then you can get all cuddly and stuff.”

They had actually managed to make it halfway to Keith’s room without incident, and then Keith’s legs decided to stop working. “Whoa, whoa now!” Lance tightened his hold around the other’s waist to keep him from falling. “No passin' out until we get to your room!”

“You said I could once we got to the top of the stairs!”

“I said you can _cuddle_ when we get to the top of the stairs!” Fuck, what was he saying, even? Too late now, Keith enthusiastically accepted that invitation and started nuzzling him again, giggling like a schoolgirl whose senior had finally noticed her. And, honestly? Lance realized with a start that he didn’t really mind all that much. Had Keith always been this warm? Or was that just a result of his being drunk?

“Lance?”

“Hm?”

“Lance… I feel weird.”

It was the alien wine. Definitely the alien wine.

“Whooooooooooooooo…”

Keith began to wildly sway, making it difficult for Lance to keep a hold on him. “The hell, man, knock it off!”

“Shhhh! The room is spinning. It’s so cool. _Whoooooooooo…”_ Then he burst into laughter, louder than Lance had ever heard him, the sheer frequency vibrating through his vocal cords ripping into his ear.

“Ugh. It’s great that you’re so chipper right now, but could you kinda tone it down?” Lance hissed. “If Shiro sees that you got drunk, he’ll kill you.” And him. Most _definitely_ him.

Keith banged into him again in a fit of uncontrollable giggles. His breath was hot against Lance’s neck and made him shiver. The door to Keith’s room never looked so good. Lance managed to kick it open with his foot. “A’right, buddy, you did great. Let’s just put ya to bed and – “

Keith collapsed and, still clutching Lance’s arm, dragged the other pilot down to the floor with him. The bottle of wine Lance had grabbed bounced out of his jacket and rolled away. Staring up at the ceiling now, Lance muttered every colorful phrase he knew in his family’s native Spanish, mostly phrases he heard his mother say every time _he_ did something mutter worthy. He was considering leaving Keith here on the floor and being done with it when the ceiling was replaced with glassy indigo eyes. Keith leaned over him, and Lance was suddenly, unnecessarily aware of the other straddling his hips.

“You’re the worst,” Keith growled, not the same person he had been less than two minutes ago, catching Lance completely off guard.

“Do you want me to put you back in the wine cellar?” Lance shot back.

“This is _exactly_ what I’m talking about. You don’t even know what you did.”

Oh. They really were going to talk about this now, weren’t they?

Lance sighed, this time out of remorse and not exasperation. “Keith, I’m really sorry. You might not believe me, but I am. I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to make fun of you like that in front of everyone. I didn’t take your feelings seriously, and I was bein' an insensitive jerk about it. I know we’re not good friends or anything, but it’s not like I wanted to make you, um – “ He fumbled around and then lifted his hands to gesture at Keith. “Like _this.”_

He kind of wished Keith would stop staring down at him like that, with his flushed cheeks and hair falling over his face and his large eyes looking less glassy and turning dark with something else entirely. On top of that, Keith’s knee nested between Lance’s thighs and the other had to lie completely, utterly still in order to keep the blood from rushing from his brain to other, um, places. His lips were slightly parted and he was breathing heavily, and Lance suddenly remembered a situation he had been in before _exactly_ like this only she wasn’t drunk and he really needed to not think about that now, nope.

“So hot,” Keith moaned.

Lance’s heart raced.

“It’s really, really hot.”

And then Keith threw off his jacket. And his utility belt. Then his hands went for the hem of his black t-shirt. “Heyheyheyhey!!” Lance pushed himself onto one elbow and pulled Keith’s shirt back down. “O-okay, no need for that, y-yeah?”

“But it’s hooooooot.”

“Yeah, you need to sweat it out, buddy. Here, if you let me up, I’ll get ya some water from the bathroom.”

Keith didn’t move and continued to stare into Lance’s eyes. It was very unnerving, and there was nowhere else for Lance to look that didn’t make things even more awkward. Surprisingly, Keith’s breath wasn’t all that boozy. It was slightly sweet, actually, like the flowers that bloomed in late spring back home. It tempted him to go find that full bottle and join Keith on this little drunk adventure, maybe even show him just how sorry he really was –

“I’m only seventeen.”

“Huh? What? Wait… _WHAT?”_

“I-I mean, I’ll be eighteen soon. Like real soon. Maybe. How long have we been here?”

Lance’s jaw dropped. “H-how!?”

Keith scowled. “Um… my mom gave birth to me seventeen years ago.”

“No, I mean, how are you a second year at the Garrison if you’re only _seventeen!?”_

Keith sat there for a second, eyebrows knitted tight together. “Ow.”

“Did you just think too hard?”

“It’s very complicated, okay!”

With a groan, Lance plopped back down on the floor. And this whole time he had figured he and Keith had been the same age, around nineteen. Clearly that wasn’t the case, and now this situation had evolved to a completely different level. His skull began to tighten with an oncoming migraine. What could Shiro possibly do to him that would compare to this punishment?

Keith’s lips were on his.

Lance went completely stiff when Keith was suddenly pressing their mouths together. It was aggressive and warm and Keith’s lips were so soft and tasted so sweet and that flowery scent was overpowering his senses, especially his common sense. Romeo and Juliet Law said this wasn’t a bad thing they were doing, right? He only turned nineteen a few months ago, and if Keith was _almost_ eighteen, then they weren’t even two years apart.

“Keith, we can’t.”

Fuck, gasping the words out like that definitely did not help his point any.

“It’s fine, Lance, we’re probably already in trouble, anyway.” He giggled. “It’s not like I’m old enough to drink.”

“Dude, you’re not old enough to _vote!”_

“But Lance…” Keith pursed his lips in a pout. “It’s hot and the room won’t stop spinning and I feel so fuckin’ weird – “

“It’s called bein’ _drunk_ , Keith, welcome to the class, nice of ya to join us. You’re not in your right mind, buddy. You’re incapable of makin’ any kind of solid decision right now. You said so yourself back on Chronas that you haven’t figured out your feelings yet. A bottle of wine won’t fix that, no matter how alien it is.”

“People can make good decisions while drunk.”

“Yeah, people who are fully aware of their _limits_ and are capable of drinkin' _responsibly._ My sister drinks like a fuckin’ fish, and she’s never made a bad decision in her life. You are not on her level. _At all.”_

Lance sighed again, and this time it was in exasperation again, mostly at himself. Keith stared down at him like a kicked puppy. In fact, he looked so downright _miserable,_ it was almost enough to make Lance take back everything he said, pop open that other bottle of wine, and put them both on the same playing field.

“You can… you can pretend I’m a girl.”

Lance’s eyebrows shot up to all but disappear beneath his short brown bangs. “Wat.”

“People are always telling me how pretty I am, and so, you can, y’know… pretend I’m a girl. It shouldn’t be a problem if you do that, right?”

“Oh my fucking…”

Lance couldn’t contain it. He burst out laughing. He laughed at everything. He laughed at this whole situation, this conversation, the circumstances that brought them to this point, that night Keith called him “cute” and how strangely pleasing it had been to hear him say that. Lance laughed so hard, his belly hurt and tears tickled the corners of his eyes. He covered his face with his hands, unable to take much more, and if he kept laughing like this he really was going to start crying.

“It- it’s not funny!” Keith was so enraged, he didn’t even yell. It was enough to make Lance calm down and remember why he was here in the first place, and that he was being insensitive all over again.

“You’re right,” Lance gasped out, calming down little by little. “It’s not. And it has nothin' to do with you bein’ a guy, Keith. I’m bi, okay? Trust me, you fit the criteria just as you are. I don’t need to pretend that you’re a girl.”

Keith tilted his head. “Bi?”

Seriously? “Yeah, bi,” Lance said dryly. “As in bisexual? As in I swing both ways, bat for both teams, the reason why I didn’t punch your lights out when you kissed me without askin' first.” He may as well go for gold at this point. “I _am_ attracted to you, Keith. And I have been for a while. I know this doesn’t make up for me mercilessly harpin’ on you about it, but I was actually really happy to find out you’re attracted to me, too. I just handled it in my own stupid way, and hurt you real bad in the process.”

Lance hadn’t meant to be so sappy with his impromptu confession, but it was calming Keith down considerably. He was starting to sober up, even. He sat back and Lance had enough wiggle room to sit up this time, and thankfully this whole situation had gone down a weird enough road that his body actually hadn’t reacted to the compromising position of Keith’s knee.

“Okay, it’s definitely way past your bedtime, c’mon. Like I said I’ll get you some water and…”

Keith remained where he was, staring straight ahead as if transfixed by the wall in front of him. Then his eyes went wide. “Oh god…” he groaned and Lance recognized those sounds gurgling up Keith’s throat as easily as his mullet.

“Fuck no! No no no no _no no no no!”_

Lance shoved Keith to the side as he jumped to his feet, then grabbed the other by the arm, dragging him into the bathroom after kicking the door open, and then shoved Keith’s face into the toilet just as the other gagged violently and then spewed out everything his stomach had been holding since probably lunch. Keith lurched again, and the backsplash was so bad, more vomit flew out of the toilet than into it, splatting against the floor, the seat, and even the wall. Lance crinkled his nose. The visceral scent of puke, wine, and flowers was overpowering and brought tears to his eyes.

“Uuuuuuuuuugh,” Keith groaned, lifting his face from the bowl, tiny chunks clinging to the ends of his hair. Without thinking about it, Lance swept his fingers over his head to hold his thick mullet back from being defiled further. “Lance… why does it _hurt_ coming back up?”

“Because your body hates you right now. A lot. You’re bein' punished for thinkin’ you could run with the big dogs when you should’ve just stayed on the porch.”

“Funny, that’s usually something you – “ Keith lurched again, and back into the bowl he went. God, just how much could his small stomach even hold?

“Hm, yeah, but I’m not the one whose drunk ass is face deep in a toilet right now, am I?”

“Fuc – _HUUUUUUUUUUUUURGH_ – f-fuck you…”

With a small smile, Lance started gently rubbing his back. “Hang in there, buddy.”

* * *

 

Keith woke up feeling like he was being stabbed in the eye, and the assailant wasn’t going to put him out of his misery any time soon. “Oh my fuck,” he groaned, his brain feeling too big for his skull. Why was the light in his room so goddamn bright even with his eyes closed? He rolled to his side, and his stomach heaved in protest, and he tasted bitter bile in the back of his throat.

Fuck damn, the room was _still_ spinning. It was as if sleep hadn’t done shit to help sober him up. He was about to throw his blanket back over him like an animal crawling into a dark place to die when he noticed Lance lying next to him. Well, not _next_ to him. Lance was on the floor, his arms folded on the edge of the bed and cradling his head.

Memories of last night began to play in Keith’s head, sporadic and disoriented and had a fuzzy darkness to them like they weren’t actually _his_ memories at all, but they felt too solid to be dreams either. And he noticed a bottle of something lying on the floor not far from the bed. Did he drink? He hadn’t even meant for that to happen!

When he had climbed out of Red last night, he found himself cornered by Hunk and Pidge. While he appreciated that they apologized to him, it hadn’t been something he wanted to hear at the moment. Not from them, at any rate. He had made up the excuse of having to go to the bathroom, assured them that what had happened was no big deal, and he was gone. Then he had found the wine cellar, an unassuming set of dark stairs just down the hall from the kitchen. A good place to hide for a while.

Keith hadn’t experimented much with drinking. He’d only tried a bottle of wine out of curiosity, and he had been kind of thirsty anyway. The wine had been thick and sweet, filling him with a bubbly warmth, and tasted not unlike the cream sodas he used to get, the kind sold only on Seoul Drive back home. Once he had a taste, he couldn’t control himself. The more he drank, the better he had felt. A sense of weightlessness had come over him as if all his problems had been lifted and now there was nothing left tying him down to reality.

He didn’t remember much after that.

Lance stirred and stretched, and then tried to crack his neck as if he had a kink there. “Hey,” he greeted. “Good mornin’, Sunshine.”

His voice was groggy and hoarse, his dark brown hair somewhat messy, and he had the stupidest grin on his face. If not for the fact that Lance had been sleeping on the floor, Keith would have thought some _very_ interesting things had gone down last night. He nodded and replied with a quiet, “Morning.”

“How are ya feelin’?”

“Like shit. What are you doing in my room?”

“Takin' care of your drunk ass, obviously. You were a complete _lush_ last night.”

Keith felt his face grow very, very warm. “I, uh, Lance? Be honest with me. I… I didn’t do anything, um, _weird_ last night… did I?” He was clutching the blanket tight in his hands.

Lance’s grin was catlike and absolutely no good. “Define _weird.”_

“Oh, God.” Keith didn’t want to know. He really, _really_ didn’t want to know.

“We kissed.”

“You’re shittin’ me!”

“Noooooope.” Shit, that smile was so devious, there was no way he could be lying.

“I’m gonna throw up.”

“Hey! Rude!”

But Keith shoved past him and raced to the bathroom. He didn’t throw up, but he dry heaved something fierce and spit out several globs of saliva. It was enough to relieve some pressure off his stomach, but it didn’t make him feel much better.

The bathroom was definitely cleaner than when he left it last, and smelled faintly of citrus. The toilet was particularly spotless.

“Hey, are you hungry?” Lance asked, leaning against the doorway.

Keith scowled at him. “Does it look it?” Ugh, the idea of eating anything made his stomach churn threateningly. He just wanted to go back to bed and die in peace.

“You threw up a lot last night,” Lance pointed out, his tone strangely serious. “You need to eat somethin'. You need _grease._ And water.”

No, what he needed was the sweet, sweet embrace of death. But he was too sick and too tired to fight with Lance right now. And, well, it was evident that Lance had taken care of him. Even cleaned up after him. “If I go with you, then will you get out of my room?”

“Well, duh. I’d have to if we’re goin' to the kitchen.”

Fuck it. Good enough.

Walking proved to be more challenging than Keith imagined. Ten feet later, he was leaning on Lance for support, having grown dizzy and nauseous all over again. “We’re almost there,” Lance told him encouragingly, and Keith was hit with a pang of familiarity, and he could _vaguely_ remember this very scenario happening last night.

“There you two are. We’ve been looking for you all morning.”

Shiro had come around the corner, and his eyes widened to see Keith leaning on Lance like an invalid. “Keith? Are you okay?”

The boys glanced at each other, unsure how their superior officer would take to underage drinking, especially considering the sheer amount of briefings on the subject they all had been forced to endure back at the Garrison every Friday afternoon. “I’m just not feeling well,” Keith replied and even coughed a bit for emphasis. The cough almost made him throw up and really validate his lie. He swallowed it back.

“Yeah, I figured some food will help him feel better,” Lance added with a grin that was a little _too_ wide. “Some water, y’know, rehydrate and stuff, ah!”

Keith kicked him in the ankle before his stupid mouth could give them away.

Shiro raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. “Okay. Hope you feel better soon, Keith. Carry on, then.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Both Shiro and Keith stared at Lance. “Um, Shiro’s just fine, Lance,” the Black Paladin replied with a small smile. “I think you’ve learned your lesson well enough. Alright, I’ll be out on the training deck if anyone needs me.”

Keith still gawked at Lance as Shiro walked away. “Captain?” Keith echoed. “You just addressed Shiro by rank. _Nobody_ does that here.”

“It’s not a – “

Keith’s face split into a wide grin when the realization dawned on him, and it was so good, it almost made his hangover go away. “Shiro made you his little bitch, didn’t he!? He got pissed at you about what you did on Chronas and dragged your ass through the coals!”

“Okay, it wasn’t _that_ dramatic, sheesh. He only got a little mad.”

“You called him _Captain!”_

“Well, that’s what he _is!”_

“We don’t use rank out here! Ohmigod, he smacked your dick so hard, you call him captain without thinking about it!”

“No, that’s not – “

Keith burst out laughing and ducked out from under Lance’s arm. “Wait until the others hear this!” And he took off toward the kitchen.

“Wait, Keith!” Lance cried, taking off after him. “You’re supposed to be sick, remember? Hey! Don’t tell the others! I told you last night, I’m sorry about what happened on Chronas, okay!? I really am! Keith? _KEITH!!”_


End file.
